This invention relates generally to the art of packaging and more particularly to the art of producing a package by forming a pocket in a sheet of wrapping material, placing a product in the pocket, and sealing the material to enclose the product.
Various methods have heretofore been used for forming packages. The one commonly used method requires prefabricated, heat shrinkable bags or pouches and a filling operation which is followed by subsequent evacuating, closing of the bag and then shrinking the bag about the product if desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,867 to Kastulus Utz et al describes the formation of a shrinkable pouch in a first foil, putting the commodity to be packed into the space between the pouch and a second foil, sealing both foils together and shrinking the first foil in the area of the pouch.
Another method known in the art as skin packaging is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,721 issued to Robert O. Wolfelsperger which shows a film drawn into a cavity and held there while the product is placed in the film cavity after which the cavity is evacuated and the vacuum released so that the single sheet collapses around the product making a peripheral seal.
Various approaches have been taken in an attempt to provide improved methods for producing display packages. One of the better known is a blister type package; for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,375 to Howard A. Rohdin which shows preforming a blister enclosure from a unitary piece of plastic sheet material by forming the enclosure in two opposed mating sections integrally joined along a fold line which traverses the base portion. Flanges are formed along the free edges of each of the two sections to provide means for securing them together around the product to be packaged.
The present invention provides a new process and package in which the advantages of skin, bubble, and bag packaging are incorporated into a single package. With this invention the simplicity and economics are even greater than those of skin packaging. As in bubble packaging and bag packaging the present packaging method can be employed without first making a substantial investment in packaging equipment. In addition, this process produces a package in which the product may selectively project from and be visible from either one or all sides of the finished package and yet be covered completely by a protective pocket of plastic film.